Buying voluntary offsets can and should be a regular part of the casual environmentalist’s lifestyle, just like recycling or carpooling. In this series, we’ll explore the voluntary carbon market, how to participate and why now is the time for action.

Deloitte has centered on two key areas where it can leverage its strengths as a business service provider to have a positive impact for the long term on the communities in which it operates: education and workforce development.

Monsanto presents a series on what it means to be “Climate Smart” in the world of agriculture. The series will cover the role of climate change in impacting food security, agriculture, weather patterns and society at large.

In this editorial series we’ll explore the role of business in supporting access to education and opportunities, and consider the best way to prepare a generation of leaders who understand the importance of sustainable development.

So, your company wants to reduce its landfill waste. Now what? As sustainability reaches top of mind for investors and customers, more companies are beginning to tackle waste in their supply chains in order to boost their green cred.

An event series whose mission it is to bring together companies from around the world to discuss climate change and how they can work together to address it most impactfully. Now building sponsorship and registration. [INFO HERE]

For NI17 we’re creating an experience unlike any conference you’ve been to before. We’ll help you map out your Path to Purpose to turn your passion into a purposeful career by gaining tangible skills and actionable insights. [INFO HERE]

Ask yourself this: How many devices in your house use batteries? How often do they need to get replaced? How often have you thought of getting rechargeable batteries? How often have you actually done it? If your answers are many, often, every time, and never, you’re not alone. According to Earth911.org, every year in the US, we throw out 180,000 tons of batteries. Personally I think a number of batteries would have even more impact, but the point is clear: We go through a lot of batteries. Batteries which contain a lot of materials that we’d all rather not see making their way into our environment, and many of which are actually recyclable I recently faced this very dilemma: We bought a hand crank powered flashlight, which you would think would diverge cleanly from the battery habit, but for one thing: The noise of the gyro inside while cranking drove my wife bananas. She demanded that we get another, crank free flashlight.

My first thought went to getting a LED flashlight, the last of which we owned lasted nearly 3 years on one set of batteries. Then I thought about getting rechargeables, but then that involves getting another gadget to do the actual charging, and I’m, well, busy. Yeah that’s it. And then I found the perfect solution: The USB Cell. What’s so different about this battery is how you recharge it: pop the top off, and inside is a USB connection. Plug it in to a USB port on your computer, game console, or wherever else a USB port is showing up these days, and it does the rest. According to the site it’s ready to be used again in minutes, for those short of patience. This NiMH battery has won a number of awards, including the UK CEED National Energy Efficiency Award, and Pocket Lint’s green gadget of the year. Currently USBCell makes one model, for AA batteries, but there are plans to create AAA, 9V, C, D, and PDA/Cell phone batteries as well. According to the site, you can buy these batteries from 50 countries via their website, and if you’re in the US, at REI and Office Max. As I wrote in my article on cell phone recycling last week creating products that remove the roadblocks, real or imagined, to greater adoption of a eco friendly behavior is the best thing, outside of $6 a gallon gas, to motivate people to change.Paul Smith is a sustainable business innovator, the founder of GreenSmith Consulting, and an MBA in Sustainable Management from Presidio School of Management in San Francisco. His overarching talent is “bottom lining” complex ideas, in a way that is understandable and accessible to a variety of audiences, internal and external to a company.

Paul Smith is a sustainable business innovator, the founder of GreenSmith Consulting, and has an MBA in Sustainable Management from Presidio Graduate School in San Francisco. He creates interest in, conversations about, and business for green (and greening) companies, via social media marketing. || ==> For more, see GreenSmithConsulting.com

Please wait until to try it before doing the review. “According to the site it’s ready to be used again in minutes” I don’t mean to be cranky but I could have simply read their ad — the review does not add any content. I got most way done and felt like a dope for reading it.

“According to the site it’s ready to be used again in minutes”!!! Actually, the site states, “the charge should take about 5 hours by USB and the light should go off when USBCELL is fully charged.” ( http://usbcell.com/support/faqsection/5 ). For me, 5 hours is much more than “in minutes”. I don’t see what’s so hard about placing batteries into a recharger.

I think that this is a good thing, in general. However, we should remember that what we are seeing is a cell with a recharger already included. I have to really wonder if this is actually more environmentally friendly. As each cell wears out, then each recharger will have to be thrown out or recycled. That being said, I think that this does have something to offer, in that it might be easier to recharge the cell. We don’t have to bring a seperate recharger with us, because it’s already compact enough to drag along. Also, the manufacturers don’t need to create some kind of a wall rat.